The Leonid meteor shower will be active from November 6 to 30, 2025, and will peak on the night of November 16-17, according to the American Meteor Society.
The Leonid meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through the debris of ice and dust left behind by the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.
Leonid meteor shower in 2025
When to see: The Leonid radiant – the point from which the meteors appear to radiate – rises around midnight and reaches its highest point in the sky at dawn. So the shower will be best visible in the pre-dawn hours on November 17, 2025, when the radiant climbs high in the sky.
You won’t see the Leonid meteor shower until midnight as the shower’s radiant will still be below the horizon.
Where to look: Look high in the southeastern sky in the pre-dawn hours to see the constellation Leo, from which the Leonid meteor shower radiates.
The blue-white Regulus – the brightest star in the constellation Leo, the Lion – will help you identify the constellation. It is easily visible even from light-polluted areas. The radiant of the Leonid meteor shower is located to the upper left of bright Regulus.
Expected meteors during peak activity: In normal years, the Leonids are a modest shower, producing around 15 meteors per hour during peak activity under ideal conditions.
Moon phase during peak activity: The moon will be in the waning crescent phase and 9% illuminated during peak activity. As the waning crescent moon rises at dawn, the moonlight will not interfere with the Leonids in 2025.
Visibility of the shower: The Leonid meteor shower will be favorable to observers in the Northern Hemisphere, especially those located in the low-northern latitudes (from 15°N to 30°N).
Observers located in low northern latitudes will see about 94% of the shower’s activity, as the radiant climbs almost overhead (about 70° above the horizon) in the pre-dawn hours.
The Leonid meteor shower will be visible from the Southern Hemisphere as well, but at a lower rate and just before dawn. However, anyone living farther south than 25°S has little to no chance of seeing the shower.
Meteor velocity: The Leonids are the swiftest of all known major annual meteor showers. They travel through Earth’s atmosphere at about 69.7 km/s (250,920 km/h), which is very close to the maximum attainable velocity of 72 km/s.
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